Recently Played

I figured I would start up a sister thread to the Recently Watched/read/listened to threads. There wasn't one for Video games, and I thought it would be nice.

I played Farcry and just finished it this weekend. I thought it was mostly good, but the monsters that come in about halfway through kill you with just one hit. they gang up on you and you waste half a clip on them. Kinda like Doom3, but not near as bad. As far as weapon variety goes, I think it was very good. There was enough weapons to satisfy even the most unrealist of them all: me. I liked the jump-heighth and run speed although the stamina ran out after about 8 seconds. the reload speeds were okay.

FarCry was crap [IMO]. Recently played Resident Evil 4, which is a perfect game that revives the Resident Evil genre.

I can't say that I have played RE 4, but i really do like the Genre. The other games were sweet though. What were some cool features of RE4?

I have to agree with Vash on the fact that RE4 does breath new life
into the genre, and a new storyline (not just the same virus anymore).

Lately, I have been playing alot of Hoverboard ASDF. It is an online
game, still in beta, that is racing on, of course, hoverboards. There
is a fair amount of avatar customization as far as clothes and such go.
It also has a somewhat RPG element to it in the fact that you gain exp
for each race and level up. Also, you can get gear to better your
stats. Although it is, after all, in beta, and can be pretty laggy at
times (like being in first on your screen, but being second place to
the guy at the back of the pack). And of course, like any online game,
it has its share of morons.

Alien Hominid is a good game also. For PS2 and GC, it is 2D side
scroller game with nice animation, and plenty of bosses. It is short,
and difficult for most, but the hidden hats you can collect and the
co-op play make it worth it. There is also a PDA mini-game that has
over 200 levels, and a level creator.

I am sure there are others, but that is all I can think of right now.

Recently played "Pull my finger" with my grandson.. great fun.

Playing through Thief 2 and Thief 3 (for the 2nd time). Both exhibit
some of the best sound design ever realized for a game (Thief 3 even
won a Sound award over at Gamespy I believe) and the ambience is simply
amazing. Brought to you by the same people that did System Shock.
Though I have to admit, the gameplay of the Thief series doesn't suit
everyone; it emphasizes strategy, tension, and excrutiating patience, a
far cry (get it? ha) from Doom 3 and Half-Life 2.

I played Thief 3 a few months (or a year ago) and it was amazing.

Recently played Huntingforallocblockfullerror.

Amazingly fun.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Orpheus</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Recently played "Pull my finger" with my grandson.. great fun. </DIV></DIV>
Teach him 52-card pickup next. He'll like that even more.

Huntingforallocblockfullerror??? they must be REALLY hurting to keep the "hunting game" genre alive... they're coming out with worse names every day...

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Nickelplate</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Orpheus</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Recently played "Pull my finger" with my grandson.. great fun. </DIV></DIV>
Teach him 52-card pickup next. He'll like that even more.

Huntingforallocblockfullerror??? they must be REALLY hurting to keep the "hunting game" genre alive... they're coming out with worse names every day...

</DIV></DIV>
ha __________________ ha __________________ ha

I've been getting my ass casually kicked over the last year in Metroid Fusion. Note the term casual.

I'm playing through Sanitarium right now, and it's sure a lot of fun.

It's a nice diversion, seeing as I managed to kill my video card. :sad:

If anyone really likes olde-school gaming experiences, there is a neat little game called "Castle of the Winds" It is a cool 2d RPG from about 1990 -- windows 3.11 days. The developer said it has been long enough that I can now distribute it as freeware. I recommend you give it a try.

http://vengeance.et.tudelft.nl/cow/

If you find yourself a big fan there is always Part II

I've played some good HL1 mods as of late:

Sven Co-Op: A classic mod where you play single-player missions in co-op. Great mapping possibilities.

Battlegrounds: A Revolutionary War mod where you get to shoot the British. Pretty original and fun combat just because the guns take so long to reload and are so hard to aim. What more could you ask for?

Hostile Intent: This mod has to be praised, first of all, for going through a four or five-year coma and then finally getting its s**t together and coming out with a release (For about a year I worked on a 'competing' mod, Uncrossable Parallels, that underwent similar pressures and eventually petered out). Originally envisioned, before Counter-Strike was made, as a Rainbow-Six-esque tactical shooter, it evolved into a pretty basic "Counter-Strike without the lameness" mod. It's still damn fun.

Zombie Panic: Great mod for a laugh; the gameplay is essentially online tag.

Doom 3, after finding out that
id had the superior engine I can run through and actually "enjoy" the
power of the Doom 3 engine, along with thier level design (cant say
much about the AI or gameplay though)

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2) the
best of the series so far IMO. Konami took out that feeling of you are
playing a movie, and replaced it with the sence that its you and the
jungle, and nothing else.

World Of Warcraft a great multiplayer game (Just immagine Morrowind with War Craft graphics and "world") and the quests are fun...to a degree.

Morrowind (elder scrolls 3)
great RPG, too great in fact (which is its lowes point at the same
time), the story is extremely long and it takes for ever to level up
for the first time. I never completed it due to its long ass story.

XIII: (PC) I really liked this game. Visually attractive
(although the level design was quite simple sometimes.) Website:
http://www.xiii-thegame.com/uk/home.php

Half-Life 2 (PC) No need to say anything about that. Class.

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (PC) I replayed it on the "jedi" setting, with a new character.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (PC) Playing that one now, quite fun.

I also discovered the Team Fortress mod for Enemy Territory, which is quite fun too: http://www.etfgame.com

I'm thinking of buying (yes, I buy my games) "Beyond Good and Evil" as my next game.

Beyond Good and Evil is a really nice Zelda-esque game, well worth
playing if you are into adventures that feel like they are giving you
some degree of freedom. Its only problem is that it never matches the
scale or grandeur of Zelda - I completed it and found all the animals
and crystals in just 2 days (rather intensive) play. Not to say that
short games are a bad thing, but the play dynamics just felt like they
lent themselves to a large and varied world, but in fact the world is
rather small. I guess I'd have liked some more exploration. The music
is absolutely wonderful though, and the voice acting is suitably light
hearted and well done.

Just got my Xbox back from repair so i'm finally able to play on the games I got for Christmas:

Sudeki I've played this the most so far and its OK. It feels a little too simple in places and the characters are awful, but it has a certain charm about it.

Fable Not played much as my Xbox died just after i'd finished all the boring training stuff but seems cool so far.

Colin McCrae I kept crashing. Not easy to control but seems good.

Armed & Dangerous Not played yet but it looks crazy as hell and it got good reviews.

Halo 2 Again, Xbox died just as I got to the big tank that you can drive so I have to start again. I was worried I wouldn't be able to control a FPS with a gamepad but the slight auto-aim helps there.

Prince Of Persia 2 Stupid Xbox. Got to the very last battle with the empress and now I have to start over. Good game but its lost a lot of the charm of the original. Again, too much battle and not enough of the puzzles.

Amped 2 Not played much yet...I only really got it for the 300+ songs on the soundtrack :wink:

And I also got Donkey Konga for the Gamecube which is great fun especially when there's more than one person playing. If you thought the use of 'Don't Stop Me Now' was genius in 'Spaced', then wait till you play it on bongos :wink:

I never understand how people can play FPS with only an Xbox controller. I mean, sure they are BIG enough, but there is really only like, what, 7 buttons? and no mouse to boot. If I could play FPS with mouse and keyboard on Xbox, i would OWN at freinds house. As it is, I still win sometimes, but that's just cause my mates suck.

that revolutionary war mod sounds awesome! Can you BE a brit or are you just a proto-american?

I have to say Doom 3 was a bit dated gameplaywise, and i didnt think much of Halo 2, FarCry wasnt bad though. But i have recently enjoyed Half Life (1) and Final Fantasy Vii for about the millionth time

I played HL2 recently. Great game IMO and has counter strike source :biggrin:

F.E.A.R looks like it could be an amazing game, so does Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl, a bit off topic i know, but they look awesome.

Sadly weve not yet had Resi 4, only another 2 months to go :sad:

I managed to get into the final phase of beta testing for World Of
Warcraft in Europe, and I'm very impressed. :smile: I've never played an
MMORPG where you could just jump right into the thick of things so
easily.

Burnout 3 has been dominating my PS2, and besides a crap (and highly
inappropiate) soundtrack, it's best the racing game ever IMO. :biggrin: I've also
been playing through Doom 3 a bit, identifying all the bad bits and
thinking up ways that could have made it better :razz: Still a class game
IMO, with some brilliant moments.

got back on everquest again recently, Far fewer players on it now
because of the second. My brother bought me EQ2 for christmas but I
need more ram to run it :sad: - hopefully il update my processor/hdd/ram
soon & il be able to play eq/hl2 finally.

Recently completed:

Burnout 3 - Great game but I'd agree that the soundtrack is terrible. Full of "child-rock" that'd appeal to 12 yr olds I guess.

Flatout - Stock car driving game on Xbox that's tons of fun, esp with mates. Imagine Destruction Derby with cars and scenery that can get destroyed. Sadly, the publishers Empire appear strapped for cash as the soundtrack is even worse than in Burnout 3.

W40K: Dawn of War - Really captures the brutal feel of Warhammer. Only negatives for me where its length (only 10 single player missions done in several hours) and some of the voice acting is appalling. The main Chaos bad guy (Sindri, I think) is voiced in the campest English accent I've ever heard - I couldn't stop laughing during the cut scenes at how bad it was, and some of the other voice acting isn't much better.

Halo 2 - Very disappointing. Still quite fun to play but basically more of the same from Halo 1. In places it looks awesome, but other levels looked terrible I thought. And then there's the awful ending...

Fire Emblem (GBA) - Top class RPG strategy game with masses of gameplay and a great storyline.

Advance Wars 2 (GBA) - developer Intelligent Systems does it again (they also did Fire Emblem). A paper-rock-scissors type of military strategy game with loads of levels. God knows how many hours I've invested in this one.

Rome: Total War - I really enjoyed this one, but once you've found out the most successful tactics & units it's possible to totally massacre much larger AI armies.

StarWars: Battlegrounds - Quite enjoyable and it creates a great impression of full scale wars with loads of troops, but some of the levels are poor. Plus, who wouldn't want to be in an AT-AT on Hoth killing the Rebel scum with Darth Vader. :smile:

I loved Burnout 3's soundtrack personally, its filled with some really
great tracks by bands that don't get the coverage they deserve (No
Motiv, Reggie and the Full Effect, The Ordinary Boys, Fall Out Boy,
Motion City Soundtrack, Mooney Suzuki, the list goes on) and I found it worked really
nicely with the racing. It might not have been able to match the
diversity of Project Gotham Racing 2, but it was a marked improvement
over the exceedingly dull and repetitive tunes of Burnout 2 (thank god
for the Xbox version allowing custom soundtracks!). It introduced me to
several bands who I have since bought albums by, and it was nice to see
some smaller bands I listen to appear in such a big game.

I'm not sure I agree about the ending of Halo 2 being bad, it just
isn't what you expect. The first game brought closure, but the second
leaves you begging for more. The end boss was a bit of a disappointing
fight and the game could have used a more action packed set piece like
that of the first game, but I can appreciate that doing something like
that again might seem a bit formulaic. I can see why people more
accustomed to PC control methods might find it tricky, but the Xbox
controller is really pretty suited to FPS control once you get the hang
of it.

Finally got around to finishing Ninja Gaiden yesterday, as I could
never play the game for any significant amount of time without it
crashing and so progress was normally frustratingly cancelled out as it
ended before I could reach a save point. The end boss was a bit puny
after some of the toughies through the game, but its a very rewarding
game nonetheless. Now to play through on some master ninja tournament
modes :smile:

I agree with ReNo about the Burnout 3 soundtrack...I also think there's some great tunes on there...I mean, how can you label Jimmy Eat World and Mooney Suzuki as 'child-rock'?! Shame on you keved :wink:

edit. I've just realised keved is Gustavo...double shame on you :biggrin:

keved is Gustavo? like THE gustavo of the AWESOME maps for HL1? OMG! I will have keved's babies!

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Adam Hawkins</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>I mean, how can you label Jimmy Eat World ... as 'child-rock'?! </DIV></DIV>
:shocked: I can see where you're coming from if you listen to Mudvayne DIIIIIGGG GRRR and general RAAA GRRR DIE KILL RAAA rock, but otherwise, how rude.

Hehe, re: the Burnout 3 soundtrack, different strokes I guess guys. :smile:

Ninja Gaiden - I bought that when it came out but got completely frustrated with its difficulty level. It is undeniably an excellent game but I think a lot of people like myself will have given up long before the end and unfortunately not experienced most of it. Take a bow if you've completed it. :smile:

So you REALLY ARE the actual gustavo? like the real one? And I'm talking to you? You are like my mapping IDOL. So awesome.

SuperTyrian 2: Lord of the Game 1996
Variation on the greatest overhead shooter ever. Main changes are no cheat codes, no weapons except molecular generator, and really hard.

SuperTyrian 2: Time War 1996
As above, except only one level and slightly easier. It's a good introduction to the molecular generator :smile: .

Recently finished Silent Hil 4 and Project Zero 2 on the Xbox, both of
which are really good survival horror games. Silent Hill was perhaps a
little lazy in that it reuses pretty much all its locations by making
you go through them twice, but its done in a reasonable way with new
puzzles and enemies, so I guess it pulls it off. I was a bit
disappointed with it in some ways but all in all it was worth playing.

Project Zero 2 is just more of what Project Zero did so well and
despite having spent many hours playing the first game, it still
managed to scare me reasonably frequently. Most of the ghosts have
great personality and there are hints to their back stories, which is
just so far above the depth given in most survival horrors its quite
awesome. Loads up unlockables and extra features in the directors cut
version that the Xbox has as well :smile:

Just got Otogi 2 the other day, which is a pretty standard sequel to
the original game. If you are into fast action games, particularly
those full of atmosphere and Japanese authenticity, then this is a game
for you. Very little has changed but the addition of 5 new characters
and plenty new levels makes it a worthy sequel for fans of the original.

The other night a friend and I played NES for about 6 hours.
Just reconfirming that:

Mario Brothers
Super Mario Brothers
Super Mario 3
Donkey Kong
River City Ransom

Rock! I really wish they would remake River City Ransom. Or at the very least port and translate the SNES version for GBA.

Metal Gear Solid 3, WoW and all the old Virtual Boy games have been
recently played by myself. Oh, and Zelda: Minish Cap. I've noticed that
lately Nintendo has been picking themselves up again and the quality of
the games they're putting out is getting better (at least in my market)
which I'm happy for.

Super Mario Bros. 3 has no competition. Well, maybe Link to the Past. :wink:

Gorb, that's been happening since the GC came out. A lot of the Nintendo titles on it are excellent games, some of which are close to the best in thier series' (Mario Sunshine only has about 3 or 4 mario games better then it: Mario 3, Mario World, Yoshi's Island, and maybe Paper Mario. Other then that, it has a higher "fun factor" then all the others.)

Also, the only REAL comparison to Super Mario 3 is Super Mario 3 Allstars ... just because it looks better. I wish another side scrolling flat adventure mario game would come out. The GBA is/was a perfect chance to do that.

I just got Doom 3 and all I can say is wow. Even with all settings on
low or otherwise off (except for specular mapping of course) it looks
pretty nice. The only problem I do get is the 30-40fps rate, although I
haven't got far (so don't spoil it), I'm starting to enjoy it. I feel
there should be some more slow action packed games out there like this.
The 'PDA' idea is excellent :smile:

I heard Q IV is being developed with the same technology which is being
tweaked and enhanced (as honestly 4 player DM isn't good :sad: ) if anyone
has screenshots and information about that? Hopefully that will be
something to rival HL2 & Unreal 3.

Painkiller. I can't believe none of you have mentioned it. This game is awesome...no joke...the first level is so-so....but it is completely adrenaline packed. The physics in this game are sweet too. The 'painkiller weapon' has not 2...but three functions.....the amount of ways to kill a demon with the small amount of weapons is unbelivable. You only get like 5 weapons....but each weapon has 2-3 functions and multiple ways of blasting the enemy apart. This isn't like Doom 3 where you have a maximum of like 3 guys comin at you. You are facing 5, 10, 15 guys at a time....an you turn around and theres more coming at full speed. Cool enemy model detail and very nice weapon detail along with some sweet textures and level design make this game quite enjoyable and sweet large bosses. Gameplay is very straightforward and the story blows but is definately worth $30 bucks. Lots of replay value. There is even a stake gun in which you literally pin the enemys to the wall while they hang from the stake dangling from their chest. Sweet stuff. Sweet. Bloody. Stuff.

Doom 3. Yeah....I am pretty far in the game and it is fun enough. Pretty scary. Very nice layout. However each place looks just about the exact same. Lab, lab, and more labs. Yes I know it is on Mars based in a Marine base but....I dont know. However...each enemy feels important. Like each guy was carefully placed and has some sweet animation effects. That I like. I isnt just mindlessly fighting off hordes of demons. PRetty good so far.

Best Friends. A very colorful and amazingly addictive, with wonderful physics, whimsical graphics, and charming speech sounds type game. visit Retro64.com for more info.

Xatax. A game from about 1995. It is a side scrolling space shooter. lots of fun and basically only runs in DOSBox.

Pocket Tanks. A 1 on 1 artillery game similar to Scorched Earth. You and a buddy on one computer adjust the position and power of the turret and take turns blasting each other till the end of the round. Another colorful game with nice sfx. Very fun with tons of cool different weapons. Visit blitwise.com for more info.

Half-Life 2[color=white] Still waiting to get it (shoot me now).[/color]

Thats about it for now. Yeah...I play multiple games at a time :smile:

Recently finished Prince of Persia, the original one. Old but still so cool! (Now that I know how to save my game, that is).

Then I'm playing some NFSU2, though not a lot anymore.

And now and then some HL2DM... quite refreshing at it's time... :biggrin:

In-between packing all my stuff up in boxes, i've been playing Armed and Dangerous, and it's better than I expected. Still quite simplistic in gameplay terms but is has a similar charm to the first MDK game.

The only bad thing i've picked up on so far is the sub-standard Monty Python humour - oh, and the accents. I've said it before and i'll keep on saying it until someone takes notice (other than Big Blue Box with Fable).....we aren't all posh or c**kney ffs! :wink:

Yesterday I got Full Spectrum Warrior, and it really kicks ass. I haven't got a chance to play much of it, but from what I have it's quickly becoming one of my favourite games. It is not first person, but still great. It is real-time strategy that makes you think before you act. The Co-op play is great and requires a lot of communication. I played only one level so far, but it is a must play.

PWN!

World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft.

That's about all I've been playing. I shudder to think how many hours I've dropped into it. But it's oh-so-good :biggrin:

I also have 12+ hours in or am very near the end of:

X-Men: Legends (~12 hrs)
Ratchet and Clank (~14 hrs)
Knights of the Old Republic 2 (~15 hrs)
Dawn of War (one of the last missions).

I highly recommend all of these.

My wife has impressively overtaken me in Ratchet and Clank and will probably finish the second one today and start the third. Silly WoW and work lagging me behind :wink:

Wow, KungFuSquirrel, I'm envious. You have a wife who plays video
games with you. Despite the fact that my fiance is a computer
programmer, she wants nothing to do with any computer games.

She probably has the ability to code mods on a professional level, but
she doesn't even play any of my maps. I guess it's just not in
her blood.

On the topic of game playing, I am replaying HL2, and I plan to replay
it over and over until my eyes bleed. I am exploring the
surrounding and admiring the beauty of the architecture a lot more the
second time around. It's just such a wonderful game.

I've played HL2 recently, and it was very dissapointing. The engine is
ok, and the DM is acceptable, but the SP mode is just a joke. Horribly
over the top, and a bit homosexual imho.

HL2 deserves more explanation than a blank criticism like that.
What do you mean "over the top"? How is it "homosexual"?
And even if it is, what's wrong with that?

I bought "Beyond Good & Evil" in Italy for 10 euro's (which is pretty cheap). I really like it.

I bought "Beyond Good & Evil" in Italy for 10 euro's (which is pretty cheap). I really like it.

If you didn't, I would stab you until you did :biggrin:

Prince of Persia - Warrior Within. Great game

Classic

World of Warcraft hit the store shelves in Europe last friday and I've been playing it since. :smile: